Development of Point-of-Care Testing for Disaster-Related Infectious Diseases

Abstract

After disaster, the victims lose their safe lives and are even exposed to nature where they could suffer from animal bites and vectors followed by suffering from zoonosis or vector-born diseases. Because of the urgent need for rapid and cheap diagnosis for infectious diseases after disaster, anonymous questionnaire clarified that leptospirosis, dengue, diarrhea, and cholera were recognized as common disaster-related infections in the Philippines, while diarrhea and pneumonia were more common in Indonesia. It should also be noted that infectious disease itself such as tuberculosis associated with acquired immune deficiency syndrome in South Africa is a disaster. Thus, the possible occurrence of similar situation in Asia should be prevented. We have conducted an international collaborative research in the Philippines and Indonesia on dengue virus, leptospira and mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) infectious diseases. Development of point-of-care testing for molecular diagnosis and disease severity was the principal purpose of the research. Loop-mediated isothermal amplification assay, which does not require a source of electricity, was developed for leptospirosis, dengue and MTB and has been proved to be useful where resource is limited. The plasma levels of matricellular proteins, including galectin-9 and osteopontin, were found to reflect the disease severities in dengue virus and MTB infection, probably because matricellular proteins are one of the most functional extracellular proteins that are associated with inflammatory edema. The study on disaster-related infectious disease facilitates the international cooperation for development of point-of-care testing for tropical infectious diseases.

Active Components of Leptospira Outer Membrane Protein LipL32 to Toll-Like Receptor 2

“…Tumor necrosis factors alpha (TNF-α) and matrix metalloproteinase-7 (MMP-7) have been demonstrated to up-regulate when treatment of LipL32 to renal cells 25 . In additions, other macrophage chemotatic factors including CXCL1/GRO-α and Osteopontin (SPP1) are also selected to measure the renal interstitial inflammation 27 , 29 , 30 .…”

New Development of Disaster-Related and Tropical Infectious Diseases Control

“…Such "weapons" could be a cause of disasters, if they are not treated appropriately. In South Africa, the number of deaths caused by acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) associated with tuberculosis (TB) in 1990 accounted for 47% of all deaths, and an increase in HIV infections was also noted during this year [2]. Increased HIV infections were seen in South Africa in 1990, indicating the invasion of HIV into TB-endemic area, which accounts for much of the rise of AIDS/TB in South Africa [14].…”

“…Detection of the DENV genome in serum samples by RT-PCR is efficient at the early stage of the disease, however, an expensive apparatus and reagents are necessary to conduct the assay, and the final diagnosis can be delayed because the specimen should be sent to the laboratory [2].…”

“…Recently at the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami (GEJET) of March 11, 2011, a magnitude 9.0 earthquake attacked Sendai and neighboring cities, and the number of missing people was about 20,000. This area was found to be attacked by a tsunami (Jogan) at July 13, 869, indicating a large-scale tsunami occurs with a 1000 year interval [1,2].…”

Rapid and reliable diagnostic method to detect Zika virus by real-time fluorescence reverse transcription loop-mediated isothermal amplification

“…Compared with traditional serologic test, LAMP is fast and efficient and may be a particularly useful method for infectious disease diagnosis in low and middle-income countries. LAMP does not require expensive equipment, and the process can be performed with a water bath or incubator (Hattori et al 2016 ). Thus far, detection methods for Zika virus have primarily relied on traditional real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR).…”